What Did Jesus Suffer?

The suffering and death of Jesus is not only the central point of all history, but it is also notoriously gruesome and intense. That being said, the purpose of reflecting on the harsh nature of the crucifixion is not to guilt you. The purpose is to explore the depth at which Jesus experienced human suffering as a display of the love of God. Through Jesus, we see a God who understands betrayal, cruelty, loss, false accusation, unjust institution, nakedness, and death.

Arrested & Betrayed

12AM on Good Friday | Luke 22:39-53

With the knowledge of all that was to come, Jesus spends the whole night wrestling with anxiety in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 describes Jesus as “sweating great drops of blood”. This is a rare medical phenomenon called hematohidrosis where blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture due to extreme physical and emotional stress. After hours in prayer, Jesus is found by the arresting Temple guards led by Judas Iscariot.

Already in a state of extreme stress, Jesus would have had to endure the reality that one of his closest friends has betrayed him. Luke 22 also describes the arresting Temple gaurds as being rough with Jesus; pushing, shoving, and striking him in the face.

Interrogation

4AM to 6AM on Good Friday | Luke 22:63-65, John 18:15-27

Jesus enters intense questioning by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme judicial body. Shuffled between two High Priests, Caiaphas and Annas. Matthew 26:60 records that many witnesses were called to testify against Jesus but their stories didn’t agree. After, much confusion, Jesus is asked directly about his claim to be the Messiah to which he answers with the name of God, “I AM”. Condemned to death by the council, Jesus is beaten by Temple guards in prison all through the night. During this time, the disciple Peter was denying his association with Jesus in the courtyard.

Trial & Conviction

6AM to 8AM on Good Friday | Luke 22:66-23:12, Mark 15:6-15

Early in the morning, Jesus is tried by King Herod and Roman Governor Pilate. Even though he has only been charged with the religious crime of blasphemy, the High Priests add the charge of treason to catch the interest of the Pilate. The goal was not to simply stone Jesus, which was within their Jewish rights to do. The Religous leaders wanted Rome to execute Jesus effectively putting an end to any idea of his Messiahship.

Jesus brought back and forth between Herod and Pilate who questioned him about his Kingdom. Trying to satisfy the crowds, Jesus is flogged. Ultimately, Pilate sentences Jesus to crucifixion; an sentence reserved for radicals and rebels.

Beaten & Mocked

8AM on Good Friday | Matthew 27:27-31, Isaiah 52:14

Jesus is mocked and beaten by a mob of imperial Roman guards.

This was a public event. Every aspect of crucifixion was public and designed to humiliate the victim. Jesus is stripped naked in front of a crowd and flogged using a cat-of-nine tails whip. This type of whip had fragments of bone and sharp lead weights on each strand and was designed to slowly dig its way into a prisoner’s body. Most prisoners didn’t survive this.

Jesus, whose body is reduced to ribbons of flesh, is spat on and struck in the head. Roman guards preform a mock coronation, crowning him with thorns instead of laurels. The crown of thorns looked more like a basket covering every part of the head. Thorns were around an inch to an inch and a half long. Parts of Jesus’s beard were plucked since most Roman rulers are clean shaven. This causes his face to swell.

Via Dolorosa

8AM to 9AM on Good Friday | Luke 22:66-23:12, Mark 15:6-15

After being dressed in his own clothes, Jesus is paraded through the streets with his cross-bar on his back. Criminals never carried the full cross, as it was to heavy.

Grotesque crowds of bystanders yell and shove at a weakened Jesus who struggles to carry his cross beam. He is yoked to two other rebels being crucified. Golgotha is a place just outside the entrance to the city where passersby can look in horror at the crucified. Empty cross bars lined the roads leading into the city. Contrary to popular imagery, Golgotha is actually an outcrop overlooking a stone quarry by the road.

Crucified

9PM on Good Friday | Mark 15:22-32

Once the grotesque parade arrives to the spot, Jesus’s clothes are ripped from his body. The force of this would have been extremely painful given his wounds from the flogging. Mark 15:22 says that Jesus is offered wine with myrrh as a way of coping with the pain, but he refuses. After being stretched out on the cross beam, iron spikes are nailed through his wrists sending hot electric shocks through his arms. The nails are placed in a particular spot between bones. The pain would have been unimaginable.

Jesus is then lifted up and the crossbar is attached to it’s vertical post in the ground. Some of these may have been modified tree stumps. The rough texture of the tree bark causes further injury to Jesus back as he has to pull himself up to take a breath. His ankles are nailed to either side of the upright post.

Dies

3PM on Good Friday | Matthew 27:45-56, John 19:31-37

Crosses were low to the ground, and people would ridicule the crucified face to face. Those passing by read the written charge above his head (“Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews”), and understand his ministry to be a failure. People would throw things at the crucified and the soldiers gambled for Jesus’s possessions. Before he dies, Jesus asks for a drink. Soldiers grab a sponge and offer him vinegar to drink. The only sponge, Romans, carried was one used for cleaning after relieving themselves.

Darkness covers the land and Jesus cries out Psalms 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” After hours of suffering on the cross, Jesus gives up his spirit with a shout. To check if he was dead, a solider pierces a spear into Jesus’ side and into the heart. The crucified often died from asphyxiation (drowning from fluid filling the lungs). John 19:34 attests to this by recording that “blood and water” flowed from Jesus’s side after it was pierced.

Buried

4PM on Good Friday | John 19:38-42

Jesus is taken down from the cross and laid in a nearby garden tomb.